AP News in Brief 10-26-19

US troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields

BRUSSELS — The United States will send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to keep oil fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday.

It was the latest sign that extracting the military from Syria is more uncertain and complicated than President Donald Trump is making it out to be. Though Trump repeatedly says he is pulling out of Syria, the reality on the ground is different.

Adding armored reinforcements in the oil-producing area of Syria could mean sending several hundred U.S. troops — even as a similar number are being withdrawn from a separate mission closer to the border with Turkey where Russian forces have been filling the vacuum.

Esper described the added force as “mechanized,” which means it likely will include armored vehicles such as Bradley armored infantry carriers and possibly tanks, although details were still be worked out. This reinforcement would introduce a new dimension to the U.S. military presence , which largely has been comprised of special operations forces not equipped with tanks or other armored vehicles.

Esper spoke at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he consulted with American allies.

Pentagon hands Microsoft $10B ‘war cloud’ deal, snubs Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO — The Pentagon awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract , snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose competitive bid drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals.

Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against one another.

The giant contract has attracted more attention than most, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be the sole winner of the deal. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids and also formally protested the bidding process last year.

Oracle later challenged the process in federal court, but lost.

Trump waded into the fray in July, saying that the administration would “take a very long look” at the process, saying he had heard complaints. Trump has frequently expressed his ire for Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. At the time, he said other companies told him that the contract “wasn’t competitively bid.”

Judge hands Democrats a victory in impeachment inquiry

WASHINGTON — A judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to give the House secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, handing a victory to Democrats as they gather evidence for the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

In a ruling that also affirmed the legality of the impeachment inquiry itself, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered the department to turn over the materials by Oct. 30. A Justice Department spokeswoman said it was reviewing the decision. The administration can appeal.

The ruling in favor of the House Judiciary Committee comes as Democrats gather closed-door testimony from current and former government officials about the Trump administration’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden. The Mueller materials could reveal previously hidden details to lawmakers about Trump’s actions during the 2016 election and become part of the impeachment push.

The material covered by Howell’s order consists of redacted grand jury testimony mentioned in Mueller’s report. The Justice Department says that information is the only piece of the document that key lawmakers have not had access to.

Democrats believe the still-redacted information could shed new light on key episodes of the investigation, including discussions Trump is reported to have had with associates about the release of stolen emails during the campaign and conversations about a 2016 Trump Tower meeting at which Trump’s eldest son expected to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The judge said the materials could help lawmakers as they decide which witnesses to call for an impeachment inquiry and what additional lines of investigation should be pursued.

Bigger, longer blackouts could lie ahead in California

SAN FRANCISCO — A wildfire in California wine country that may have been caused by a high-voltage transmission line called into question Pacific Gas &Electric’s strategy of selectively cutting off power in windy weather to prevent blazes and could force it to resort to even bigger blackouts affecting millions as early as this weekend.

The repeated shut-offs and the prospect of longer and more widespread ones brought anger down on the utility from the governor and ordinary customers.

“We will hold them to account,” warned Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly blasted PG&E — the nation’s largest utility — for what he calls years of mismanagement and underinvestment that have left its grid less resilient.

Twice over the past two weeks, PG&E has cut power to large areas of northern and central California to reduce the risk of its equipment sparking fires. Nearly 2 million people lost electricity earlier this month, and then as many as a half-million this week.

But PG&E’s decision to shut down distribution lines but not long-distance transmission lines may have backfired this time when a blaze erupted near the Sonoma County wine country town of Geyserville.

From wire sources

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GM workers ratify contract, ending contentious 40-day strike

ROMULUS, Mich. — A contentious 40-day strike that crippled General Motors’ U.S. production came to an end Friday as workers approved a new contract with the company.

The four-year deal will now be used as a template in bargaining with crosstown rival Ford Motor Co., the union’s choice for the next round of bargaining, followed by Fiat Chrysler.

GM workers voted 57.2% in favor of the pact, passing it with a vote of 23,389 to 17,501, the union said in a statement.

Picket lines came down almost immediately after the vote was announced, and some of the 49,000 striking workers were expected to return to their jobs as early as Friday night. Some skilled trades employees such as electricians and machinists were to enter the plants to get machinery restarted in preparation for production workers to return as early as Saturday.

“It was a good vacation, but I guess I’ve got to go back,” joked Paul Daru, a 42-year worker at GM’s engine and transmission plant in Romulus, Michigan, near Detroit. “I miss the socializing and stuff like that, seeing the guys, going out on the job and figuring out what the problem is.”

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4th suspect arrested as UK truck deaths case probe deepens

LONDON — A fourth person was arrested in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in the back of a container truck in southeastern England, British police said Friday as the investigation into one of the country’s worst human smuggling cases geared up.

Police said a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland was arrested Friday at England’s Stansted Airport on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people. The arrest came after police arrested a man and a woman, both 38 and from northwestern England, earlier Friday on the same charges. The 25-year-old driver of the truck remains in custody on suspicion of murder.

Essex Police said 31 men and eight women were found dead in the truck early Wednesday at an industrial park in Grays, a town 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of London. Although U.K. police said they believed the dead were Chinese citizens, they acknowledged Friday this was a “developing picture.”

China said it could not yet confirm the victims’ nationalities or identities.

The Vietnamese Embassy in London said Friday that it contacted police about a missing woman feared to be one of the dead. An embassy spokesman said it was contacted by a family in Vietnam who says their daughter had been missing since the truck was found.

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US deficit hits nearly $1 trillion. When will it matter?

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration reported a river of red ink Friday.

The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged 26% from 2018 to $984.4 billion — its highest point in seven years. The gap is widely expected to top $1 trillion in the current budget year and likely remain there for the next decade.

The year-over-year widening in the deficit reflected such factors as revenue lost from the 2017 Trump tax cut and a budget deal that added billions in spending for military and domestic programs.

Forecasts by the Trump administration and the Congressional Budget Office project that the deficit will top $1 trillion in the 2020 budget year, which began Oct. 1. And the CBO estimates that the deficit will stay above $1 trillion over the next decade.

Those projections stand in contrast to President Donald Trump’s campaign promises that even with revenue lost initially from his tax cuts, he could eliminate the budget deficit with cuts in spending and increased growth generated by the tax cuts.

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Trump’s company exploring sale of landmark Washington hotel

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s company said Friday it is exploring the sale of its landmark Washington hotel after nearly three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency.

The Trump Organization says it will consider offers to buy out the 60-year lease on the Trump International Hotel, which since opening in late 2016 has become a magnet for lobbyists and diplomats looking to gain favor with the administration.

“People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel and therefore we may be willing to sell,” said Eric Trump, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. “Since we opened our doors, we have received tremendous interest in this hotel and as real-estate developers, we are always willing to explore our options.”

The opulent, 263-room hotel built in the Old Post Office down the street from the White House has hosted parties thrown by diplomats from the Philippines, Kuwait and other countries, and has been among Trump’s biggest money makers. It is at the center of two lawsuits accusing the president of violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.

According to Trump’s most recent financial disclosure, the hotel took in $41 million in revenue last year, up less than half a million dollars from the previous year.

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Venezuelans buy gas with cigarettes to battle inflation

CARACAS, Venezuela — Motorists in socialist Venezuela have long enjoyed the world’s cheapest gasoline, with fuel so heavily subsidized that a full tank these days costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny. But the economy is in such shambles that drivers are now paying for fill-ups with a little food, a candy bar or just a cigarette.

Bartering at the pump has taken off as hyperinflation makes Venezuela’s paper currency, the bolivar, hard to find and renders some denominations all but worthless, so that nobody will accept them.

Without cash in their wallets, drivers often hand gas station attendants a bag of rice, cooking oil or whatever is within reach.

“You can pay with a cigarette,” said Orlando Molina, filling up his subcompact Ford Ka in Caracas. “Heck, it’s no secret to anyone that it goes for nothing.”

Gas is so dirt-cheap that station attendants don’t even know the price. Emptyhanded drivers get waved through, paying nothing at all.